Dallas Man Admits Possessing More Than 8,000 Images Of Child Pornography

DALLAS — Howard Tyson, 45, of Dallas, pleaded guilty this morning, before Chief U.S. District Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater, to a criminal information charging one count of possession of child pornography. Tyson faces a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine and a lifetime of supervised release. Judge Fitzwater ordered Tyson to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on Monday, March 4, 2013, and set a sentencing date of June 14, 2013. Today’s announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña of the Northern District of Texas.

According to documents filed in the case, Tyson used a peer-to-peer file-sharing program to download child pornography from the Internet onto his computer and his wife’s computer. When agents with the U.S. Secret Service executed a federal search warrant at his residence on July 26, 2011, Tyler admitted that he had been downloading child pornography for approximately one year. He said that he downloaded most of the child pornography onto his wife’s laptop computer. A forensic examination of both computers showed that the hard drives contained more than 8,000 images and 20 videos of child pornography. Tyson acknowledged that some of the images were sadistic and that the images and videos were of real prepubescent and pubescent minors.

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative, which was launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals, who sexually exploit children, and identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/. For more information about internet safety education, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/ and click on the tab “resources.”

The U.S. Secret Service and the Plano, Texas, Police Department are investigating. Assistant U.S. Attorney Camille Sparks is in charge of the prosecution.